Voiceovers And Social Value – The Not Silent Blog 8/23/16

I was on LinkedIn this morning to post my Quote Of The Week and I saw this post from my friend and fellow Faffer Connie Terwilliger. To summarize, here’s an excerpt:

And so, after many years of declining membership and sponsorship dollars, on August 11, 2016 the Board of Directors of Media Communication Association-International (MCA-I) voted to dissolve the 47-year old association, effective immediately.

Wow.

In three weeks I’ve lost two of the biggest influences on my voiceover career: The Voiceover Bulletin Board and now MCA-I.

MCA-I is a media group designed to educate & promote its members in the video and audio production fields. Like the VO-BB, I honestly don’t remember how I joined the group back in 2002. As soon as I walked in the door of my first meeting there was Paul Payton, a fantastic voice talent who greeted me warmly and is now a dear friend.

At a later MCA-I meeting, who asks to cut in line at the buffet table? Liz De Nesnera! Another fabulous voice talent who is also now a dear friend.

At yet another meeting, the chapter was looking for ideas for a charity to promote and I suggested the Children’s Organ Transplant Association. I and some friends were working with COTA to raise funds for a double-lung transplant to save the life of a friend who was suffering from Cystic Fibrosis. MCA-I helped produce a PSA to promote awareness and played a part in getting the necessary funds to prolong our friend’s life.

MCA-I was a tangible part of my life for many years. As a result I’m a better voice talent and I made lifelong friends.

TIP OF THE WEEK

So what happened?

The VO-BB ended because it was technologically obsolete.

It would be easy to say that MCA-I ended because it was socially obsolete, but I’m not sure that’s true. It’s more likely that MCA-I ended because people think being social is obsolete.

I think a big problem in society right now is that as a result of the Internet, many people have become more insular. They don’t go out as much as they used to and as a result have lost the social value of making in-person person-to-person connections. “Analog Marketing” as Paul Payton likes to put it, has truly become a lost art.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, half of my business comes from my fellow voice talents. Why? Because nothing can replace developing meaningful relationships with people as a result of live interaction. My advice to you is to get out of the house and interact with real people in a live setting. Value being truly social, not cat-selfie rot-on-your-couch social. You will be the better for it both professionally and personally.

NEWS AND NOTES

Since I’ll be attending FaffCon 8 in Minneapolis, no blog next week! I will be catching up on life and talking for money. You know how it is.

Tom Dheere is a 20-year veteran of the voice over industry who has narrated thousands of projects for clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a coach at Edge Studio, voiceover business consultant known as the Voice OverStrategist, and is currently writing & producing the comic book “Agent 1.22”.